Serial Killer Inquiry Puts Fishing Village on Edge
By JILL BARTON The Associated Press
PORT SALERNO -- Rosa Perez knows the killer is probably only after women who lead troubled lives, but she is keeping her young boys inside to play on this sweltering summer day just the same.
"I won't let them go to the park, or go outside even for a moment because you never know. It's terrible," Perez said.
Her cheerful yellow home sits just blocks away from where three women have been found strangled in recent weeks. Police say the killings could be linked and are warning of a possible serial killer.
On any other day, Perez said her street would teem with children riding their bikes or kicking around a soccer ball, but Friday, all was quiet.
Over the past 10 weeks, the bodies of Christal Wiggins, Jackie Bradley and Carrie Caughey have been found. All three had a penchant for getting into trouble and partying in the nearby woods where drug users are known to camp, police officers said. All were strangled.
Authorities are warning that a killer could be stalking the area for similar victims, but they also are trying to curtail the fear spreading through this otherwise quiet fishing village.
"We're quite sure that we don't have a lunatic running around just murdering people," said Martin County Sheriff's Capt. Ed Kirkpatrick. "We're sure that whoever it is knew the victims, shared that type of lifestyle, whether it was using drugs or drinking a beer in the woods. It wasn't a stranger."
Still, police are warning residents to be cautious and to keep their doors locked, and that has put residents on edge.
On Friday, Sandra Mendez admitted the killings made her anxious as she waited for her son's school bus to arrive at a corner near their home.
"I always wait for him, but this makes me want to hold his hand more," said Mendez of her 8year-old son.
Police say the first killing took the life of Bradley, a homeless woman whose body was dumped by a canal March 31. Last week, the body of Caughey, a teen runaway, was discovered at a nearby pond.
On Sunday, the mother of the third victim called police to report her missing. Kirkpatrick said authorities became alarmed because she was last seen near where Caughey was found. Police officers patrolled the neighborhood and searched the woods on bicycles and ATVs. They found Wiggins' body Monday.
A mother of two, Wiggins was struggling to get out of trouble, said a friend, Jodie Janata.
She was in jail two weeks ago on drug charges and driving offenses and had a criminal record that included prostitution, battery, burglary and drug possession charges, police department and court records show.
She would have turned 30 Tuesday.
Bradley, 43, left her family in Indiana and became an alcoholic living in the woods, police officers said. Caughey, 18, lived with her parents in neighboring Hobe Sound but often disappeared for days. She had a history of petty theft arrests and had been committed to a drug-treatment clinic.
Kirkpatrick said the deaths have brought back 7-yearold memories of two other unsolved murders in the town.
But he said police have a suspect in those cases and think he is in Mexico.
He said police are patrolling the area near the murders, making sure people are aware of the potential dangers.
